Brush mounting for vacuum cleaners, etc.



2 May 19 7 w. 1.. LINDGREN BRUSH MOUNTING FOR VACUUM CLEANERS ETC F lled Dec. 8, 1924 A5 A) +2 Far 1 Patented May 24, 1927 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WALDEMARL. LINDGREN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A SSIGNOR TO ALFRED A. NORTON, TRUSTEE, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

BRUSH MOUNTING FOR VACUUM CLEANERS, ETC.

Application filed December 8, 1924. Serial No. 754,506.

My invention is concerned with brush mountings for vacuum cleaners, carpet sweepers, etc.,.and is designed to produce a simple and. eflicient device of the class described in which the ground wheels which are geared to the brush are so mounted that they can be raised and lowered relative to the frame, thereby in effect adjusting the brush upward and downward. to vary its contact with and pressure upon the carpet or whatever is being swept or cleaned.

To illustrate my invention, I annex herewith a sheet of drawings in which the same reference characters are used to designate identical parts in all the figures of which Fig. 1 is an inverted plan view of a portion of a vacuum cleaner embodying my in vention, with the brush mounting at one end thereof being shown in central horizontal section.

Fig. 2 is a vertical section on the line 22 of Fig. 1;

-Fig. 3 is a vertical section on the line 33 of Fig. 2; and

Fig. 4 is a rear elevation of one end of the apparatus.

In illustrating my invention, I have shown it as applied to a vacuum cleaner of the type shown in my Patent No. 1,458,714, dated June 12, 1923, and in which there is employed a framework or casing 10 which has'at the forward end thereof the suction nozzle 11 leading to a suction fan, not shown.

Back of the suction nozzle is the generally rectangular housing 12 in which are mounted the ground wheels 13 and the brush shaft 14, and the connecting gearing between the same, to be described. In the upper portion of the ends of the housing 12, I secure by the screws 15 the stationary portions 16 of the supporting brackets, said stationar portions preferably consisting of strips 0 sheet netal suitably blanked and drawn to the shape shown, in which they will be seen to have the horizontal base portions through the ends of which the screws 15 pass into suitable abutments formed in the housing, while at the central portions are found the symmetrical and opposed curved portions 17 having the grooves 18 on the inner faces thereof, the curved portions 17 being in the arc of a circle.

Cooperating with the stationary portions of the brackets are the adjustable portions which constitute the gear casings 19. and

which are preferably formed of a pair of symmetrical stampings, generally circular in their outline and provided with the handle extensions 20 by which they may be manipulated. After the gearing to be described has been putin place between the two stampings 19, the edges are spot-welded, or otherwise secured together so as to form a casing for the gearing, and which will hold the grease in which such gears customarily run. The circular central portions of the casing 19 are somewhat deeply concave, as shown, and on the major portion of their peripheries, they are provided with the circular beads 21, which have the same radius as the grooves 18, so that they will fit therein and be held in any desired position of adjustment. The handle portions 20 diverge slightly, as shown in Fig. 1, and can be pressed together so as to permit them to enter the vertical slots 22 formed in the rear of the casing 10, and having three or four. notches 23 in the sides thereof so that the movable part of the bracket, or the gear casing, can be held in any desired position of adjustment. By reference to Fig. 2, it will -beobvious that if the handle portions 20 are pressed together and then turned clockwise through an angle of degrees, the portion that is lacking in the rim 21 will be brought into register with the groove 17 so rlU that the gear casings, and their attached ground wheels 13 and brush shaft 14 can be removed bodily from the device without being relatively disassembled.

The ground wheels 13 are preferably constructed of the shallow cups 24 having the flanges 25 at their peripheries, between which flanges 25 and the disk 26 associated therewith the rubber tires are held. The ground wheels 13 are rigidly secured upon the reduced outer end 27 of the shaft 28, which is journa'led at its ends in suitable bearing recesses formed in the opposed faces of the gear casing 19, and has rigidly secured on' its central portion the spurigear pinion 29,

which meshes with a similar spur gear pinion 30, secured upon the shaft 31 having its ends mounted in suitable bearing apertures concentrically located in the walls of the gear casing 19. Riveted upon the reduced inner end 32 of the shaft 31 is the brush shaft cup 33, and it will be understood that the brush shaft 14 has its ends secured in these cups 33 in any desired manner, as by the indentations 34 formed in said cups cooperating with indentations in the shaft itself. It will be noted that while the bearings in the gear casing for the shafts 31 are concentric with said casing, the bearings for the shafts 28 are eccentric, and asa result, it will be obvious that when the gear casing is adjusted by moving the handles 20, the ground wheels 13 will be raised or lowered, as the case may be, relative to the framework 10, and as a result, this adjustment of the ground wheels virtually amounts to an adjustment of the brush toward and from the carpet or other surface with which it cooperates.

\Vhile I have herein shown and described a generic invention by which the relative positions of the ground wheels and the brush may be adjusted, the gearing protected from the dust, and the brush, ground wheels and gearing readily removed, I do not herein claim the same generically, but only specifically, the generic claims being found in the companion application No. 754,505, filed on the same date.

While I have shown and described my in-- vention as embodied in the form which I at present consider best adapted to carry out its purposes, it will be understood that it is capable of modifications, and that I do not desire to be limited in the interpretation of the following claims except as may be necessitated by the state of the prior art.

IVhat I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a cleaner, the combination with a brush easing having vertical slots at each end with detent recesses in one side of said slots, of a downwardly projecting supporting bracket at each end extending parallel with the vertical slots, a bearing member adjustable on each bracket by rotating it about a: center which is fixed relative to the bracket and having a shaft journaled therein, carrying a pinion, and forming a bearing for a brush, a ground wheel at each end having a shaft journaled in said bearing member and having a pinion secured thereto meshing with the brush pinion, one set of said shafts being located concentrically with the center about which the bearing member is rotated in adjusting it, while the others are located eccentrically thereof, and a spring arm secured to each of the bearing members and cooperating with the detent recesses in the slots as the bearing members are adjusted.

2. In a cleaner, the combination with a brush casing, of a downwardly projecting supporting bracket at each end provided with curved retaining grooves therein, a bearing member having correspondingly curved ribs mounted in the grooves and having a brush shaft bearing centrally journaled therein with a pinion on it, a brush shaft connected with the brush shaft bearings, aground wheel at each end having a bearing stud eccentrically journaled in said bearing member and having a pinion secured thereto meshing with the adjacent bearing pinion, and means for adjusting and securing each of the bearing members in different positions to determine the position of the ground wheels relative to the brush shaft.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 29th day of November, 1924.

WALDEMAR L. LINDGREN. 

